Titanium oxide nanoparticles-modified smectite (SMC-nTiO2) as a low-cost adsorbent was investigated for the removal of Rhodamine B (RhB) from aqueous solutions. The adsorbents (SMC and SMC-nTiO2) were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The effects of various parameters like contact time, adsorbent weight, pH, and temperatures were examined. Three kinetic equations (pseudo-first-order (PFO), pseudo-second-order (PSO), and intra-particle diffusion) were used to evaluate the experimental kinetic of the data and the results showed that the adsorption process is in line with the PSO kinetic model. Adsorption equilibrium isotherms were modeled using Langmuir, Freundlich, and Temkin equations. The removal processes of RhB onto SMC and SMC-nTiO2 were fitted well by the Freundlich isotherm. The maximum cationic dye removal of 91.4% and 99.9% were obtained at pH 9.04, for the adsorbent surfaces SMC and SMC-nTiO2, respectively. Thermodynamic parameters such as ΔG°, ΔH°, ΔS°, and Ea were also estimated for the whole process. The error function, the nonlinear Chi-square test (χ2) have been also determined. Titanium oxide nanoparticles- modified smectite clay sample shows very good potential as a low-cost adsorbent for the removal of RhB from aqueous solutions.
Background: Dentin removed during root canal system instrumentation for creating adequate geometry for the canal and cleaning the canal. A new instrument had been marketed with the aim of optimum shaping of all parts of the canal system, however, no information present about the amount of dentin removal compared to conventional rotary system. This study investigated the amount of dentin removal when the canal instrumented by SAF compared with ProTaper by using high resolution computed tomography (micro CT). Materials and Methods: Twenty extracted single canalled teeth were utilized for this study; and randomly divided into 2 groups. In the first group, the root canals were prepared by using protaper rotary system till F2 and the root canal
... Show MoreBased on previous research results that recognized the role of paternalistic leadership in promoting a positive work climate, this study explored the impact of a toxic work environment on the mental health and well-being of employees. We used the quantitative methodology to collect and analyze data. A sample of 108 participants from Iraqi internet service provider (ISPs) companies represented the purposive study sample. We targeted employees who experienced the COVID-19 pandemic. All data was collected through an electronic questionnaire (Google and Microsoft Forms). The research model was tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results showed a negative effect of the toxic workplace on the mental health of employees. T
... Show MoreThe electrocardiogram (ECG) is the recording of the electrical potential of the heart versus time. The analysis of ECG signals has been widely used in cardiac pathology to detect heart disease. The ECGs are non-stationary signals which are often contaminated by different types of noises from different sources. In this study, simulated noise models were proposed for the power-line interference (PLI), electromyogram (EMG) noise, base line wander (BW), white Gaussian noise (WGN) and composite noise. For suppressing noises and extracting the efficient morphology of an ECG signal, various processing techniques have been recently proposed. In this paper, wavelet transform (WT) is performed for noisy ECG signals. The graphical user interface (GUI)
... Show MoreAntibiotics must be fully eliminated before they are released into the environment. In most cases, conventional wastewater treatment systems are not built to handle polar microcontaminants such as antibiotics. Oxytetracycline (OTC) is one of these antibiotics, an environmental hazard contaminant in aqueous solutions. Therefore, an advanced treatment method is needed for wastewater contaminated with antibiotics. In this study, we employed zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO), and the catalytic ozonation procedure was employed to increase the ozonation efficiency. A continuous experiment was carried out to compare the effectiveness of catalytic and single ozonation in degrading OTC in a continuous reactor. The flow rate of OTC solution, the initial
... Show MoreIsolation of fungi was performed from February to July, 2019. One hundred clinical specimens were collected from King Abdullah Hospital (KAH) Bisha, Saudi Arabia. Samples were collected from twenty patients of different ages (30 - 70 years old) ten males and ten females. The samples were collected from patients with the two types of diabetics. Specimens included blood, hair, nail, oral swabs and skin. Specimens were inoculated on Sabourauds Dextrose agar containing chloramphenicol. Thirteen fungal species were isolated and identified. The isolated species were: Aspergillus flavus, A. niger, A. terrus, A. nidulans, A. fumigatus, Candida albicans, C. krusei, C. parapsilosis, C. Tropicalis, Curvularia lunata, Fusarium solani, Penicill
... Show MoreThis work describes the enhancement of phenol red decolorization through immobilizing of laccase in chitosan and enzyme recycling. Commercial laccase from white rot fungus, Trametesversicolor (Tvlac), was immobilizedin to freshly prepared chitosan beads by using glutaraldehyde as a cross linker. Characterization of prepared chitosan was confirmed by FTIR and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Tvlac (46.2 U/mL) immobilized into chitosan beads at 0.8 % glutaraldehyde (v/v) within 24 hrs. Synthetic (HBT) and natural (vanillin) mediators were used to enhance dye decolorizoation. It was found that 89 % of phenol red was decolorized by chitosan beads within 180 min. in the absence of enzyme and mediator, while decolorization percenta
... Show MoreIndustrial dyes are major pollutants in wastewater and river water with an initial visible concentration of 1 mg/L. Recent studies have shown the possibility of using polyphenol oxidase in catalytic biological treatment due to its ability to oxidize a large number of dyes and pollutants in wastewater and the flexibility to work in wide ranges of temperature, pH and salinity. It is easy availability as well as the low economic cost resulting from its use in biological treatments, this enzyme polyphenol oxidase was used. The findings in this study showed that the extraction of polyphenol oxidase (PPO) from potato peel was homogenized with potassium phosphate buffer (0.1 M, pH 7) at a ratio of 1:10 (weight: volume) for two min. The res
... Show MoreIn this study, low cost biosorbent ̶inactive biomass (IB) granules (dp=0.433mm) taken from drying beds of Al-Rustomia Wastewater Treatment Plant, Baghdad-Iraq were used for investigating the optimum conditions of Pb(II), Cu(II), and Ni(II) biosorption from aqueous solutions. Various physico-chemical parameters such as initial metal ion concentration (50 to 200 mg/l), equilibrium time (0-180 min), pH (2-9), agitation speed (50-200 rpm), particles size (0.433 mm), and adsorbent dosage (0.05-1 g/100 ml) were studied. Six mathematical models describing the biosorption equilibrium and isotherm constants were tested to find the maximum uptake capacities: Langmuir, Freundlich, Redlich–Peterson, Sips, Khan, and Toth models. The best fit to the P
... Show More- coli K12 and B. subtilis 168 were investigated for their cadmium and mercury tolerance abilities. They were developed by UV mutagenesis technique to increase their tolerances either to cadmium or mercury, and their names then were designated depend on the name and concentration of metals. E. coli K12 Cd3R exhibited bioremediation amount of 6.5 mg Cd/g dry biomass cell. At the same time, its wild-type (E. coli K12 Cd3) was able to remove 5.2 mg Cd/g dry biomass cell in treatment of 17 mg Cd /L within 72 hours of incubation at 37 °C (pH=7) in vitro assays. The results show that E.coli K12 Hg 20 was able to remove 0.050 µg Hg/g dry biomass cell